May 2019 Monthly Running Challenge
Replies
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Race report later, short version:
My wife PR'd at 5:55! She rocked it!
I did poorly. Details to come later.14 -
Congrats on your 10k @workaholic_nurse. I think I missed that post earlier.
Congrats to your daughter @7lenny7. She did great and looks really happy.
@ereck44 hope you were able to help cheer up your friend. That's awful and seems so unfair.
@_nikkiwolf_ congrats on your race! And getting within seconds of your secret goal is making your secret goal in my book! Awesome job in the cold and with those hills.
@PastorVincent I'm sorry to hear you didn't do as well as you hoped. I hope all is OK. Congrats to your wife on her PR.
I hope I didn't miss any other races but congratulations to all.
I just took a nice recovery walk with my dog Stella and we hit up a taco truck out for Cinco de Mayo. I was kinda hoping they were also serving margaritas but I guess they don't just let you walk around the streets with those. Now we are both wiped out and ready for an early bedtime.
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@PastorVincent Congratulations to Mrs. Pastor Vincent on a PR!!! Sorry you didn't do as well as you had hoped.
@katharmonic Too bad they didn't have margaritas! At least you got street tacos.0 -
Race Report:
TLDR; It went poorly but I live to race again!
So, the morning started out rough. We had stayed in the city overnight due to the road closures and etc. This also let us sleep in a good hour to ninety minutes longer. It was a good choice, but we had planned to put most of our luggage in the truck and just leave the truck in the garage while we raced. Turns out we could not get to the garage from the hotel race morning due to all the barricades and etc. Thankfully we were at a nicer hotel and they had a service to hold bags. So we left the bags there and went up to the pre-race breakfast that Steel City Road Runners (SCRR) puts on every year for its club members.
I went for safety and only ate food I was one hundred percent sure of. That should have set me well for the race. But you know about the best-laid plans of men and mice…
So, we head out to the corals in light rain. I sneak into my coral a good 30 mins ahead of the closing it so that is good, but then I discover I was in a slower section than I expected. I was in the one I was assigned; it just had the 4:20 hour pacer and slower in it. My last marathon was 3:50 and I was shooting for sub 4 again. Well, that meant the 3:50 and 4:00 pacers would have a good fifteen to twenty minute head start on me. No way I would be chasing them down.
That was okay because I had actually remembered my pace tattoo. I was not worried about gun time, only chip time, so it really did not matter when I started. Side note: The pace tattoo worked great! I will probably use it again.
According to the official results, I started at 7:20 am. Not bad since the non-elite race was supposed to start at 7:05.
Well, it was a very very crowded field to start. I did a lot of ducking and weaving trying to hold my pace. The plan was easy, try to keep pace as reported by my Garmin between 8:30 and 9:00, and check every mile marker against the pace tattoo. Everything was going great. The weather was as predicted, and I was ticking off the mile markets with a little to spare each time. I started to wonder if I had a PR coming but held myself back and put off that decision until much later in the course. This turned out to be great wisdom
I got to mile 11 and the dreaded hill. The hill was where runner’s dreams die on. Seems all the hill work I had done had paid off, ran the whole hill without issue. Past mile 13.1 with my second best ½ marathon time and still feeling great. I was eating the gummies I brought and drinking the water I was carrying since they changed the brand on the course this year and I was unsure how I would react to it.
I was feeling great, I even stopped to ask someone if “this was the way to the 5k?” It was a hilarious question in my mind, but it went over like a lead balloon. Ah well.
At mile 15ish things started to change. First, my stomach started to rebel, and I really needed a bathroom which I have never needed before in a race ever. Did not find one until mile 18, and ducked in. Looking back, I think this was when the race really ended for me. I was in the sitting position too long and had a very hard time getting started again. Pace fell from 8:42 to 9:56, but I was still ahead of my target times, so I hoped to be able to recover that lost time.
Then the unpredicted happened. The temps fell and the rains came. Neither of which was in any weather forecast. I was not dressed for the new weather. I got a chill that I could not shake for hours. Pace fell into the 11s as I switched from making a sub-four to survival mode. At several points, I was clenching my teeth to stop the chattering. It was not fun.
I strongly considered finding a place to duck in and warm up several times. I also considered stopping and waiting for my wife (who was way behind me) and just giving up and running in with her. But I stuck it out. I held the pace in the 11s (though I did employee run/walk for parts of it) until mile 25 when I had to give up and walk for a long stretch. Pace fell to 18 minutes.
Overall I finished in 4:23 which is not horrible, but well off target. I am not sure I could have done anything else though. Not a single weather report mentioned that rainstorm in the middle of the race.
My wife killed it though. She held her pace pretty tight and came in at her personal best of 5:55:23. She was very cold too. Blue lips, uncontrolled shivering, so we got her warm clothes from gear check and then I rushed her into a McDonalds and got her decaf coffee. We stayed in that McD’s for a couple of hours until she was warmed back up and then headed home.
We both are fine now. Well, she is laid up in bed, but nothing unusual for a PR marathon. Nothing that time and donuts will not fix at least.
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@PastorVincent Congratulations to Mrs. Pastor Vincent and her PR.
And congratulations to you for sticking it out. If running marathons were easy, we'd all run them.
I haven't looked at this in a long time, but I seem to recall that the very first marathon runner had a PR. But he didn't get to enjoy it for long.5 -
@PastorVincent sounds intense for both you and your wife. Well done on completing it.
And while it wasn’t the race or result you wanted, it sounds like you were racing a good event until your body rebelled. Next time!3 -
Went out early and ran 4.5 miles yesterday. Left dog at home and it was actually better because I was able to concentrate more on my running then being worried about whether the dog could keep up. When I was putting on my running shoes to go out for the run she gave me such a sad look and started whimpering when I was going out the door. It was sad, but I knew that would have hated it after about 3 miles so I took her out for a long walk later in the afternoon.
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What a great racing weekend—I’ve loved reading all the race reports!!
Here’s my dispatch:
Getting up at 5 really helped with the 7 am start time—and I had plenty of time for some granola, a banana, and some coffee, and found the right bus to take from my hotel to the start line. The weather was in the 50s to start, and after about the first two miles the rest of the race was sunny and gorgeous.
The first 4K were significantly downhill, so I just went with fairly easy effort, and my 5K chip time ended up being a 5K PR, to my surprise. I was trying to take it easy. It’s a net downhill course, and had two modest uphill bits, and a couple of smaller ones. I walked the uphills since I’ve been training on flat runs, and hadn’t wanted to add hills in when I was still focusing on lengthening the distance—and since I knew it was a net downhill course I wasn’t too worried. This ended up being a good strategy. Walking the water stations was too—thanks @PastorVincent! Working in hills is now up next after recovery.
Basically, I felt pretty beat at miles 5, 9, and 11 to the end, but overall I really really enjoyed it. All the races (marathon, HM, & 8K) were sold out, so there were tons of people there and lots of energy. I liked the funny signs people made. I was less of a fan of the encouragers at the end when I was feeling spent—but I know it’s all motivational! The course itself is just beautiful—lots of running by the sea wall, and through beautiful Stanley Park. And it couldn’t have been more perfect weather.
I was hoping to do better than 2:20, and my time was 2:19:43, so I was very happy with that for my first HM.
And @rheddmobile yes, those were gloves! The swag was all lovely—now I just need to find a place to hang it...
May goal: 70 mi
5/1 2 mi
5/2 2 mi
5/3 13.3 mi
May total: 17.3 mi
2019 Races:
3/16 Kirkland Shamrock Run 5K
4/13 Mud & Chocolate 4.5 mi trail run
5/5 Vancouver BMO Half Marathon
5/12 The Color Run 5K
5/18 Your Canyon for a Day 35 mi Bike Tour, Yakima
6/16 Monroe Bubble Run 5K
7/21 Seafair Triathlon?
8/11 Lake Union 10K?15 -
Wow, as always I go away for the weekend and everyone here does all the things! Hugs to the injured, congrats to the racers, especially those of you who survived tough conditions! As someone else commented, remember if it was easy everyone would do it!
We went up to see my mother for the weekend. Her partner is a kind of crazy dude who likes walking, but not on beaten tracks. Last time we went out with him, that led to mum ending up falling in the river. This time, he had promised her faithfully he was going to take us on a nice easy walk that was "on a clear track and only had one tiny complication..." When asked, he claimed the tiny complication was a small (like lower than waist height) wall to be climbed over. Well, admittedly it was probably a goat track that we followed up the side of the hill. And admittedly the wall was probably only lower than HIS waist (he's very tall) but came up to my chest. He had also failed to mention the fact that said wall was on the side of an almost vertical slope next to a barbed wire fence and under a tree so you had to kind of shimmy up it, crawl along the top then from there you had to get onto a very steeply sloping rock face and climb up to the top. We survived, but I had to push my mother up the rock as she had ended up spreadeagled across it and couldn't find anywhere to grip to climb it. She swears she's never walking anywhere out of town with him every again. With hindsight it was great fun, lol!
So that was Saturday morning. Got a few sets of squats, push ups and crunches in before stretching in the afternoon as I was missing the strength training I usually do at home on a Saturday, then Sunday was long run day.
I was actually looking forward to this run so much I woke up before dawn and watched the sun come up over the mountains opposite while drinking my coffee. Beautiful. Trouble with that village is it's literally on the side of a hill and our place is at the very top, so pretty much everywhere you go is DOWN and to get home you have to go UP. There's a dirt road that follows the railway down in the valley that I used for long runs a few times last autumn so I headed down to that. Legs were feeling pretty tight after Saturday's adventures but not unbearable. The fun part of rural running (round there anyway) is you come across all kinds of animals out in the road. Yesterday there were chickens, ducks, goats, cows, dogs and a loose horse. The not so fun part was it has rained quite a lot since I last went down there, and the dirt road is now pretty much a loose stone and pothole road. Needed some very careful attention to where I was putting my feet. That, combined with very short run-walk-intervals (still experimenting with the Jeff Galloway method, really liking it!) slowed me down a little bit but I'm STILL going about 20 seconds per kilometre faster than my long run pace ought to be according to the pace calculator thingys.
This morning I can feel my legs a little bit, but not too much. All in all I'm happy, this was my longest run since HM and injury back in December.
Now I have to play with my training plan again. I have a 7km race on Sunday (not racing it, in fact my husband intends to come so we'll definitely be run-walk-running that one very gently) then was going to start from the beginning of a 15k training plan, so a few cutback weeks. BUUUUUT I seem to have signed up for a 10k race on June 15th. So I'm thinking maybe I'll have a cutback week after next week's race then very gently up the long run to 10km and stay there. Otherwise, if I follow the plan race day will replace a 9.5km run with nothing that long before it. Ah well, will play with numbers after work.
May goal: 55km Run so far: 11.5km10 -
Congratulations to everyone who raced!
@PastorVincent I started tracking at about the point you started to have issues - considering what you were going through I think your race sounds pretty amazing! And congrats to your wife for her PR!
@simcon1 Sounds like you went in well prepared and then nailed it!
Currently keeping my fingers crossed, I set out to walk 10k today and ended up running just about a mile and a half, very slowly, before my Achilles started feeling touchy and I stopped. It’s currently a little sore and I won’t really know until tomorrow if I pushed it too far too soon, but I think it’s no worse maybe. And supposedly it is okay to run while rehabbing it if it doesn’t hurt while running. I ran very very slowly and backed off when it started to feel tight.
Beautiful day at the park today, I patted a pink pony at a birthday party!4 -
@eleanorhawkins ha! Sounds like a fun guy to walk with actually.
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@PastorVincent Congratulations to Mrs. Pastor Vincent and her PR.
And congratulations to you for sticking it out. If running marathons were easy, we'd all run them.
I haven't looked at this in a long time, but I seem to recall that the very first marathon runner had a PR. But he didn't get to enjoy it for long.
Yeah, new courses and races are great for PR and wold records
Thanks @ContraryMaryMary and @rheddmobile!
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http://www.runnersworld.com/news/a27206120/michael-phelps-running-turkey-trot
Michael Phelps Calls His Thanksgiving Turkey Trot the ‘Worst Idea in the World’
He might be great in the water... but I guess a 5k not his thing. I could have beat him in that race I bet. I have run several 5ks faster at least. Would be cool to say, "Yeah, you know that Michael Phelps dude? Yeah, well I crushed him."
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@PastorVincent you were running a great race and the factors not in your control took over. Kudos on completing despite the stomach issues and conditions. I'm impressed with both you and your wife. I can imagine how chilled to the bone you were.
@simcon1 excellent first half marathon! Glad you had such a great day. Congrats on your time!
@eleanorhawkins I laughed at your story about the walk, your poor mom. She'll never trust him again! Sounds like a fun outing though!1 -
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quilteryoyo wrote: »@runnermom419 Great job! Congratulations!
@7lenny7 Congratulations to your daughter! Great run!
@ereck44 Hope you were able to lift your girlfriends spirits. Being fired after that amount of time for that offense stinks.
@katharmonic Way to go! Great job pushing through the hard parts and getting the PR!
@_nikkiwolf_ Great race!!!katharmonic wrote: »Congrats on your 10k @workaholic_nurse. I think I missed that post earlier.
Congrats to your daughter @7lenny7. She did great and looks really happy.
@ereck44 hope you were able to help cheer up your friend. That's awful and seems so unfair.
@_nikkiwolf_ congrats on your race! And getting within seconds of your secret goal is making your secret goal in my book! Awesome job in the cold and with those hills.
@PastorVincent I'm sorry to hear you didn't do as well as you hoped. I hope all is OK. Congrats to your wife on her PR.
I hope I didn't miss any other races but congratulations to all.
I just took a nice recovery walk with my dog Stella and we hit up a taco truck out for Cinco de Mayo. I was kinda hoping they were also serving margaritas but I guess they don't just let you walk around the streets with those. Now we are both wiped out and ready for an early bedtime.
Double ditto!
Congrats to all the other racers this weekend. I am a little disappointed in my time for mine, but will try to write up a report and catch up on the rest of the posts later.4 -
PastorVincent wrote: »@eleanorhawkins ha! Sounds like a fun guy to walk with actually.
I was thinking the same, although I would make sure to wear good shoes and long pants anytime he suggested an "easy walk".0 -
I woke up this morning to more knee and hip pain, so that's not fun. I thought about feeling sorry for myself, but managed to pull myself out of it and sent a message to my GP requesting an appointment or referral. At this point I've accumulated a little bit too much advice to make heads or tails of, so I think seeing a specialist and getting a clean slate will be welcome. I did do some stretches I got the last time I saw a massage therapist and that helped a little, and now I've got my TENS unit going on my knees while I work. Gym this afternoon but I'll walk there, not run.6
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MegaMooseEsq wrote: »PastorVincent wrote: »@eleanorhawkins ha! Sounds like a fun guy to walk with actually.
I was thinking the same, although I would make sure to wear good shoes and long pants anytime he suggested an "easy walk".
Yeah, and a walking stick, crampons and a big knife are probably useful additions too...
The 'best' bit for us is as he's so tall he has a very long stride and leaves us way behind.... I ought to try trail running, cause I'm sure that was good practice for that!6 -
PastorVincent wrote: »http://www.runnersworld.com/news/a27206120/michael-phelps-running-turkey-trot
Michael Phelps Calls His Thanksgiving Turkey Trot the ‘Worst Idea in the World’
He might be great in the water... but I guess a 5k not his thing. I could have beat him in that race I bet. I have run several 5ks faster at least. Would be cool to say, "Yeah, you know that Michael Phelps dude? Yeah, well I crushed him."
Yeah, I looked . . . his winning time was slower than my PW 5K, which I ran at age 60 in about three inches of snow? Aren't there any local runners better than that?0 -
10 km with the crew on saturday. Legs tired out quickly since I was still in recovery from Wednesday Nights Trail HM. Was off in my route planning so had to do a loop around the Ball Diamonds and parking lot to get the 10km.
Well done on all those who raced this weekend.4 -
PastorVincent wrote: »http://www.runnersworld.com/news/a27206120/michael-phelps-running-turkey-trot
Michael Phelps Calls His Thanksgiving Turkey Trot the ‘Worst Idea in the World’
He might be great in the water... but I guess a 5k not his thing. I could have beat him in that race I bet. I have run several 5ks faster at least. Would be cool to say, "Yeah, you know that Michael Phelps dude? Yeah, well I crushed him."
Yeah, I looked . . . his winning time was slower than my PW 5K, which I ran at age 60 in about three inches of snow? Aren't there any local runners better than that?
Yeah, I was surprised by that too. I have to say I kind of wish that 11-year girl would have run him down though.6 -
Huge kudos to you @PastorVincent for getting through those tough conditions during your marathon. And congrats to Mrs. PastorVincent on her PR!
@simcon1 well done on your HM! You were well prepared. You will crush the next one too!
Meh. 7 miles this morning. Started off slow, built speed with each mile. Not 100% negative splits, but close. Guess that's a win.
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@workaholic_nurse -Congrats on crushing your goal!
@Katharmonic and @ContraryMaryMary - Congrats to both of you. Both of those events sound like so much fun!
Fantastic job @_nikkiwolf- That is a great finishers photo. Worth every penny for the medal! Congrats!
@7Lenny7- Hooray for your daughter!
@Pastorvincent- Sorry to hear that your race did not go as planned. It happens to us all at some point. At least you have another one coming up to crush! Congrats to your wife on her PR.
@Simcon1- Way to go on your half! I enjoyed reading your report. Yesterday when I was running the Flying Pig we got into Eden Park and guy behind me who was running with his friend said "and now we are in Eden Park which reminds me so much of Stanley Park". I was wondering where that was. Now I (possibly?) know!
I am glad to report that I do not have to be beaten by sticks! Yesterday at the Flying Pig I ran my slowest half marathon in 5 years and had an awesome time! I am going to confess that it did not start out that way. I did head out at a PR pace, but after only two miles I realized that it wasn't going to happen, so I stuck with my plan to dial it back and have a good time. I kept telling myself to treat it like a training run, but it was a bit difficult at that point because I was surrounded by runners that were all running so much faster than I wanted to. I am sure many of you know what happens at that point. I did not run as slow as I probably should have, but I did not push myself into injury either, so I feel like it was still a win.
That was my second time running the Pig Half, the first time in 2012, and I have run the full 3 times since then. I have to say that, even though the crowd is still great, the half marathon is nothing in comparison to the full. I had fun running it, but the highlight of my day came after I finished when I went back out to the 24.5 mile mark of the course and waited for my running group buddies to come in. Most of them were looking pretty drained at that point and they all really appreciated the support. I ran along side several of them for encouragement which everyone agreed was very helpful. On of my friend got a course PR because I told him he was not allowed to walk. He said once I left him he kept looking back over his shoulder because he was worried I was watching. I also ran another girl all the way to the finish shoot because she pleaded with me not to leave her. It was so rewarding to know that I had a hand in helping them to achieve their goals.
It also offered me a different perspective of the marathon at that point in the race. I have been there myself, but to see the perseverance of the runners when they are obviously in pain is so inspiring. It's completely different than watching from the finish line when they get that final boost from knowing that they are about to be done. If anyone has never watched a (non-elite) marathon from this perspective, I highly encourage you to do so.
After all was said and done, Garmin said that I ran and walked over 23 miles yesterday. It was quite an exhausting day, and, while pretty uneventful in my personal collection of races, it's not one that I will soon forget!14 -
@workaholic_nurse - Congratulations! I agree that the pace/time on your card is wrong - no way you ran a 22 min mile
@7lenny7 - Your daughter is so cute and looks so happy! Congratulations to her!!
@katharmonic - You did it!! Congratulations on getting through that race so soon after Spartan!!
@_nikkiwolf_ - Congratulations!! Awesome race and time!!
@Teerai - Welcome!
@pastorvincent and Mrs. PastorVincent - Congratulations!!!
@simcon1 - Awesome race! It actually sounds like a lovely place to run - Congratulations!
Oh @eleanorhawkins - That sounds horrible in the moment but something you all will remember and probably laugh about for a long time! Too bad there are no pictures!
@PastorVincent - my daughter's swim coach told me once, when trying to get the swimmers to run a bit for conditioning that 'runners can swim but swimmers can't run'. Basically she explained that the breathing pattern is very different and very hard for swimmers to modify to run. Also I met Michael Phelps (we sat across from each other on a flight to Baltimore) and he is incredibly tall and is very humble and really nice!
@MegaMooseEsq - Hope your knee and hip issue is nothing serious!2 -
@MegaMooseEsq - Hope your knee and hip issue is nothing serious!
Thanks! I've had luck with strengthening exercises in the past but have gotten out of the habit of doing them so am trying to get some better accountability going. I got a referral to an ortho clinic so I'll have to get down there in the next few days.2 -
WTG everyone who raced this weekend!
@pastorvincent Congrats on persevering through some unexpected challenges, and Mrs PastorVincent CONGRATS on the PR!
@simcon1 Congrats on completing your first HM, sounds like you had a great time!
@katharmonic That sounds like a truly grueling race, but you nailed it ma’am!
@contrarymarymary Looks like you guys had so much fun!
@7Lenny7 Congrats to your daughter, looks like she had a lot of fun!
@_nikkiwolf_ Great race and time ma’am!
@runnermom419 WTG on the PR ma’am!
@ereck44 There are a few nurses I will not work with on the floor or do not ever want to follow because of their laziness. Hope your friend is able to get things sorted….
@kgirlhart , @megamooseesq and @tramboman hopefully your injuries are healing as they should be
@lporter229 Glad you had fun with running just the HM and encouraging other !
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@shanaber lol yeah, I was too busy trying not to fall down the rock to my death to take pictures, and mum is STILL muttering under her breath about it but it was funny really. She told me afterwards her phone, which was in her backpack, started suddenly beeping like crazy while she was stuck spreadeagled across the rock and for a moment she was sure it was sending out automatic SOS signals and someone was going to turn up in a helicopter to rescue her. Not sure she preferred her rescue in the form of a shove to the backside from underneath by me, but that was what she got! She isn't big, but at times like that I realise what a good investment my upper body strength workouts and particularly overhead presses are ;-)
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Yeah this about sums it up:
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